1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a tie rod device for use in a steering mechanism of an automotive vehicle.
2. Description of the Relevant Art:
While an automotive vehicle is running, the vibration of front tires is transmitted through knuckle arms and a steering gear to a steering shaft, causing a steering wheel to vibrate in the direction in which the steering wheel is turned. Such a phenomeon is called "steering shimmy".
One conventional steering device designed to reduce the steering shimmy is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 45-9404. The disclosed steering device has a rack housing including a cylinder and a rack shaft movable axially in the rack housing. The rack shaft includes a piston having an orifice and slidably movable in the cylinder of the rack housing. The cylinder defines hermetically sealed chambers one on each side of the piston, thus providing a vibration-absorbing damper.
However, the path along which vibration is transmitted from the knuckles through the tie rods and the rack shaft to the steering shaft remains unchanged, i.e., the vibration-absorbing means or damper is not disposed in the vibration transmitting path. Therefore, the earlier steering device fails to effectively absorb the steering shimmy or vibration. Moreover, since the damper is integrally formed with the gear box, maintenance of the damper cannot easily be effected, and it would be difficult to install the damper in an existing steering device which has no vibration-absorbing means.